Every day as I cross this swirling conurbation we call Sydney, forth and back through the environs which contain five millions of people, I am reminded on an almost daily basis of the sheer stupidity and utter recklessness of the governments of the past, who through reasons or greed, incompetence, spite, and laziness, have left behind a wake of stupid outcomes.
From the fact that the North West Metro doesn't connect the 2222m from Schofields to Tallawong, or that the Castle Hill Tram Line was ripped out and never adequately replaced, or fact that Trams do not run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge any more to Mosman and The Spit, or the fact that the last tory government decided to take a baseball bat to the face of the good and fair people of Sydney and sold off our ferries and buses, I am borderline livid at the sad joke that has been played upon this city for more than a century. Sydney was started as a penal colony and by jingo, the tories that rule from their prissy castles in the east, are going to remind us of that fact, by acting like thieves at every opportunity.
It is therefore a matter of amazement, to me that despite this, we still have the world's best train system when it comes to commuter trains. As far as I know, we are the only city in the world which operates double deck suburban stock and by default, the only city in the world which operates double deck suburban stock underground.
One of the scars left upon this city, is seen in the station which I likely visit the most often. Or rather, it has been covered over and the people do not much think about it. I am more likely to get a bus home from Blacktown in the evenings; which means that I do not make 10 trips a week through it. I have the option of either getting off at Town Hall or Wynyard, but of those two, Wynyard Station is the most likely place that buses from Mosman will dump me in the evenings. I pass through Wynyard at a bare minimum 5 times a week. Wynyard Station reminds me of the damage that has been done by previous governments to the infrastructure of this fair city, through the conspicuous absence of Platforms 1 and 2. Where once 1 and 2 would have been seen on the other side of a wooden fence, a brick wall now hides their location and the many commuters who today pass through Wynyard, think of them not.
The lower level of Wynyard was built in anticipation of a problem being solved but not immediately. Platforms 5 & 6 look like they are crying out for a pair in 7 & 8 but the latter never eventuated. Space exists though. Platforms 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 which were all on the upper level, were built and all opened in 1932 upon the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Platforms 1 & 2 came to a sad end when the decision was made to steal away from the decent and fair people of Sydney, the greatest tram network in the world, but Platforms 3 & 4 remain; which are the subject of this piece.
Unlike Museum, St James, or even the lower level of Wynyard and to a lesser degree Town Hall, Platforms 3 & 4 do not look like they are aping the London Underground. I have it on reasonably good authority that the roundels of these stations were suggested by Harry Beck who drew the first version of the now famous London Underground map; so this might help to explain the dressing of these stations. Sydney in 1926 when the Electric Underground stations were opened, was still very much a child of empire; which London as the shining jewel in the crown.
The London Underground though, was not a product of planning. Some of the current lines were all the results of separate companies, which all hated each other, and often worked in spiteful competition with each other. It wasn't until the advent of the UERL (Underground Electric Railways of London ltd.) that any sense of unification and unification if design language happened. In that pre-unification period, the proprietor of the company was Charles Yerkes; who had come from New York and worked on its Elevated and Subway railways.
I do not know to what degree of influence that the New York Subway had the plans for the underground parts of Sydney. Even now, the vast bulk of Sydney's railways are above ground ribbons that cut entire suburbs in twain. It is this reason that Sydney is probably unique in running double-deck suburban rail cars because Sydney was already running full-size Pullman coaches in the suburbs and decided to make excellent use of the available space through better packaging in the 1960s.
The upper platforms of Wynyard, remind me of many Stations in New York City. The upper platforms of Wynyard sit inside rectangular boxes, held up by vertical steel girders, and crossed by other steel girders. Platforms 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 at Wynyard are not as pretty as St James or Museum, and also not as pretty as Platforms 5 and 6 below. The similarities between the steel boxes of the NYC Subway and the upper platforms of Wynyard are striking.
This however is the punchline to this story. Wynyard while it does not match the rest of the underground parts of Sydney, has a cousin to its immediate north and both of them, I think have their design language informed by the very obvious thing in between - the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It makes perfect sense to dress both Wynyard and Milsons Point Stations with vertical steel girders when you consider that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is also a working monument to the occasional foresight which happens in the New South Wales Government.
I do have seen evidence that Wynyard used to have stubby little roundels its their upper platforms, that jutted out of the steel uprights, but I have no idea about Milsons Point. The photos which I have seen of the former and now eliminated tram platforms, indicates that they did not have them but I have never seen any photos of the train platforms in the early days of opening. I do know that Circular Quay which is kind of another steel box girder platform had them and is now a bit sad for losing them. I also know that Milsons Point Station has station entrances at street level which are in the same style as St James.
I wish they'd put the stubby little roundels back, or do what the NYC Subway does and put lots of station signs on the upright girders. This space is crying out for decoration.
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